July 21, 2014 - Long Live the Court

This column was also published by Political Prospect.

While campaigning in 2007, Obama referred to himself as a University of Chicago constitutional law professor.  It should be noted that the University of Chicago classified Obama as a senior lecturer, and not as a professor, but facts do not seem important when running for office.  Not a lie – an embellishment.

Obama’s constitutional acumen is in question because the cornerstone of Obama’s legacy, Obamacare, may be dismantled by the Supreme Court of the United States in the coming years.  The first crumbling wall was revealed this month by the Hobby Lobby ruling.

A 2012 Supreme Court challenge to Obamacare, (National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius), was deemed, at the time, a vindication and victory by Obama.  However, when you review the ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that the individual mandate could be upheld under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause by the power of the government to tax.  Justice Kennedy wrote in his dissent, that the administration “went to great lengths to structure the mandate as a penalty, not a tax.”  Not a lie – a semantic contortion.

Obamacare’s high wire walks around its constitutionality might be part of a master plan. The President sponsors a bill.  He pushes his sycophants to approve it without a single Republican vote.  Obama then allows the courts to sort out what is constitutional or not.  Obama may have crafted a flawed Obamacare law knowing it would take years for the courts to unravel the mess.  After all, as Nancy Pelosi eloquently offered, "We have to pass the bill to find out what is in it.”  Not a lie – a factual statement about the competency of our elected “leaders.”

The dockets of state and federal courts will be burdened for years with constitutional challenges to Obamacare.  They will extend beyond Obama’s currently constitutional mandate to leave office on January 20, 2017.  Obama's legacy might be the full employment of the judicial branch at the state and federal level.

Obama does have two well documented lies concerning Obamacare: “If you like your plan, you can keep it” and “If you like your doctor, you can keep him/her.”  The repercussions from these falsehoods probably have hurt any chance for the Democrats to control the House and possibly the Senate through 2016.  Even with possible 2014 congressional composition changes, the legislative branch will be unable to pass any changes or reforms to Obamacare without the threat of an Obama veto.

Obama may continue to take executive actions in relation to the implementation of Obamacare.  To date, there have been 23 delays and waivers.  None of these were approved by Congress.  This was the provocation that caused House Leader John Boehner to finally say enough, and sue the President for executive overreach.  No President should be above the law, nor should they be able to pick and choose which laws to adjust and enforce.

With the legislative and executive branches now constrained, Obama’s last hope to defend Obamacare might come full circle back through the judicial branch.

The Supreme Court’s current composition of 9 justices has 5 nominated by Republican presidents and 4 put in place by Democrat presidents. 

One tactic to change the court’s political direction was previously attempted by Franklin Roosevelt in 1937.  He wanted to expand the size of court beyond 9 justices in order to tilt the scales of “justice” in his favor.  Fortunately, we had an active Congress that stepped in and stopped that executive overreach.

The most likely scenario would be the untimely death or resignation of a “conservative” Supreme Court Justice.  John Grisham’s 1992 book “The Pelican Brief” fictionally chronicled the dual assassination of two Supreme Court Justices in order change the direction of the court.  There is a web site that offers a predictive model for the untimely death of a Supreme Court jurist.  There is a 64.08% chance, by 2017, of any of the nine current judges dying, which would allow Obama a chance to add another liberal-leaning vote.  The liberal judges are apparently in better health than their conservatives because their mortality percentage is at 32.85% compared to their conservative counterparts at 46.89%.   Not a lie – Statistic Probabilities.

This is a real concern, as Obama gave us Justices Sotomayor and Kagan.  It’s not an obscure theory to think that should Massachusetts’ own Native American Senator Elizabeth Warren decide not to run for a third Obama term, she would be a likely candidate to be a Supreme Court Justice.  The power of being one of nine is much greater than being one of one-hundred senators.  Additionally, Supreme Court Justices NEVER face re-election or recall.

Let’s hope for the continued good health of Justices Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Scalia, and yes, Kennedy.  Our country’s future may DEPEND on it.

Obama famously stated one REAL truth: “Elections Matter.”  The 2016 Presidential elections will be important, as the future direction of the Supreme Court could be determined. 

July 20, 2014 - Happy 14th

For my son's 14th birthday, we took a road trip to New York City to see our hometown Cincinnati Reds.

A special thank you to the New York Yankees organization. What a class act. They brought out a cake decorated with Yankee pennants for Jax's 14th birthday even though he was wearing his Reds jersey.

They also gave him a miniature Yankee helmet that has 27 fake diamonds, one for each World Championship.

July 19, 2014 - RIP James Garner

We lost an American icon today with the death of James Garner.

Growing up, I watched Garner in The Rockford Files TV series.  Every Friday Night, I would watch the show on the only channel we received on our TV, WHIZ, a NBC affiliate.

Garner was a true TV icon, but also a Korean War veteran and Purple Heart medal recipient.  Most impressive was his 57 year marriage while living in Hollywood.  He was universally regarded as one of the “good guys.”

I was truly influenced by The Rockford Files, where Garner played a private investigator (PI) in Los Angeles.  

Rockford relied on his quick wit and charm rather than a gun to win the day.  I was so enamored with the character that I worked as a PI apprentice one summer.  It was only after I learned that private investigators in Ohio did not earn the $200 per day plus expenses that Rockford received on the TV series that I decided on an alternative career path.

James Garner will never get the credit he deserved as an actor, but to me, he was an inspiration.

July 11, 2014 - Babe Ruth is #1

One hundred years ago on July 11, 1914, the Boston Red Sox gave a 19 year-old kid, his first pitching start.  His name was BABE RUTH.

He pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on three hits and picked up the win.

Many people only think of Babe Ruth as only a hitter, but he went 94-46 as a pitcher for a .691 winning percentage which is #8 on the All-Time list.  His career ERA was also 2.28.

Babe Ruth is better known as the player who slugged 714 Home Runs.  A number not exceeded until Hank Aaron in 1974.

But Ruth in his career, also had 123 stolen bases, 136 triples, and a LIFETIME batting average of .342.  In 1921, Ruth had 59 HRs, twice as many as the next closest player and more than all but 2 teams.  Despite his life style and diet, Ruth never spent a day on the disabled list.

Babe Ruth will always be my #1 baseball player of ALL-TIME.

July 9, 2014 - Elect Nagin ... in 2025

Today, the former Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison for his conviction on embezzlement and bribery charges.

This is the same Ray Nagin that criticized George Bush as a racist President for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.  It turns out Nagin robbed from everyone regardless of the color of their skin.

As a reminder, Ray Nagin was my "Loser of the Week" some 18 months ago.

Maybe Nagin can follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Washington DC Mayor Marion Berry who served from 1979-1991 until he was videotaped smoking crack in 1990.  He was convicted and served 6 months in prison only to be re-elected as mayor in 1995.

Nagin in 2025.... print the bumper stickers....  NOW!!!

July 8, 2014 - World Cup Shocker

Que se pass-t-il?

That is French for WTF?

I had been hoping to watch France vs. Brazil in the World Cup semifinal. I was camping over the weekend and was unable to get the quarterfinal game results. The Cincinnati Enquirer headline had France advancing. However, upon further review and REALITY, the paper got it wrong.

You can only image my shock and horror when it was GERMANY, not France, playing Brazil.  Brazil was even more shocked to face the Germans in the semis, as they lost 7-1.

This is why Soccer will never catch on in the U.S.  The above article, itself, was on page 2, not the front page and they declared the wrong winner.  It wasn't a late night game. It was played in the afternoon. Even more damning, no correction was offered in the paper or on it's website.

Bottom line, my World Cup bracket was busted. In stead of cheering France, I had to eat my croquet-monsieur and drink my vin rouge watching Dr. Oz.

It was not my GOOAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!

July 4, 2014 - Remembering Lou Gehrig

On July 4^th, we celebrate the 75^th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s famous final speech to the fans at Yankee Stadium.

Gehrig had been recently diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis).  A disease that would later be identified as “Lou Gehrig Disease.”  ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. It is fatal and there is no cure.

Lou Gehrig’s famous line is, “For the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got.  Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.”

Lou Gehrig had played 14 years without missing a SINGLE game.

Today’s player are lucky to go a month without getting a day off.  During Gehrig’s time, teams traveled by train or bus, many times over night.  Yet, he never took a day off.

For his career, Gehrig had 493 homeruns and a batting average of .340.  He had almost twice as many walks (1508) as strikeouts (790).  He hit over .300 for 12 straight years.


He was the IRON HORSE.

July 1, 2014 - Retired, Still.

Today is the anniversary of my retirement on July 1, 2005.

That is my story and I'm sticking to it.